Paris: The Novel

Internationally best-selling author Edward Rutherfurd has enchanted millions of readers with his sweeping, multigenerational dramas that illuminate the great achievements and travails throughout history. In this breathtaking saga of love, war, art, and intrigue, Rutherfurd has set his sights on the most magnificent city in the world: Paris. Moving back and forth in time across centuries, the story unfolds through intimate and vivid tales of self-discovery, divided loyalties, passion, and long-kept secrets of characters both fictional and real, all set against the backdrop of the glorious city.

Sarum: The Novel of England

In Sarum, Edward Rutherfurd weaves a compelling saga of five English families whose fates become intertwined over the course of centuries. While each family has its own distinct characteristics, the successive generations reflect the changing character of Britain. We become drawn not only into the fortunes of the individual family members, but also the larger destinies of each family line.

Russka: The Novel of Russia

Russka is the story of four families who are divided by ethnicity but united in shaping the destiny of Russia. From a single riverside village situated at one of the country’s geographic crossroads, Russia’s Slav peasant origins are influenced by the Greco-Iranian, Khazar, Jewish, and Mongol invasions. Unified by this one place, the many cultures blend to form a rich and varied tapestry. Rutherfurd’s grand saga is as multifaceted as Russia itself.

Princes of Ireland: The Dublin Saga

The saga begins in tribal, pre-Christian Ireland during the reign of the fierce and mighty High Kings at Tara, with the tale of two lovers whose travails cleverly echo the ancient Celtic legend of Cuchulainn. From that stirring beginning, Rutherfurd takes the reader on a powerfully imagined journey through the centuries. Through the interlocking stories of a memorable cast of characters we see Ireland through the lens of its greatest city.

The Rebels of Ireland

Edward Rutherfurd's stirring account of Irish history, the Dublin Saga, concludes in this magisterial work of historical fiction. Beginning where the first volume, The Princes of Ireland, left off, The Rebels of Ireland takes us into a world transformed by the English practice of "plantation", which represented the final step in the centuries-long British conquest of Ireland.

A Place Called Freedom

This lush novel, set in 1766 England and America, evokes an era ripe with riot and revolution, from the teeming streets of London to the sprawling grounds of a Virginia plantation. Mack McAsh burns with the desire to escape his life of slavery in Scottish coal mines while Lizzie Hallim is desperate to shed a life of sheltered subjugation to her spineless husband. United in America, their only chance for freedom lies beyond the Western frontier - if they're brave enough to take it.

America's First Daughter: A Novel

In a compelling, richly researched novel that draws from thousands of letters and original sources, best-selling authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie tell the fascinating, untold story of Thomas Jefferson's eldest daughter, Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph - a woman who kept the secrets of our most enigmatic founding father and shaped an American legacy.

Poland: A Novel

In this sweeping novel, James A. Michener chronicles eight tumultuous centuries as three Polish families live out their destinies. With an inspiring tradition of resistance to brutal invaders, from the barbarians to the Nazis, and a heritage of pride that burns through eras of romantic passion and courageous solidarity, their common story reaches a breathtaking culmination in the historic showdown between the ruthless Communists and rebellious farmers of the modern age.

Caravans: A Novel of Afghanistan

First published in 1963, James A. Michener's gripping chronicle of the social and political landscape of Afghanistan is more relevant now than ever. Combining fact with riveting adventure and intrigue, Michener follows a military man tasked, in the years after World War II, with a dangerous assignment: finding and returning a young American woman living in Afghanistan to her distraught family after she suddenly and mysteriously disappears.

A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel

A Gentleman in Moscow immerses us in an elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov. When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel's doors.

Centennial: A Novel

Written to commemorate the Bicentennial in 1976, James A. Michener's magnificent saga of the West is an enthralling celebration of the frontier. Brimming with the glory of America's past, the story of Colorado - the Centennial State - is manifested through its people: Lame Beaver, the Arapaho chieftain and warrior, and his Comanche and Pawnee enemies; Levi Zendt, fleeing with his child bride from the Amish country; and the cowboy, Jim Lloyd, who falls in love with a wealthy and cultured Englishwoman, Charlotte Seccombe.

Iberia

Spain is an immemorial land like no other, one that James A. Michener, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and celebrated citizen of the world, came to love as his own. Iberia is Michener's enduring nonfiction tribute to his cherished second home. In the fresh and vivid prose that is his trademark, he not only reveals the celebrated history of bullfighters and warrior kings, painters and processions, cathedrals and olive orchards; he also shares the intimate, often hidden country he came to know.

Drums Along the Mohawk

Drums along the Mohawk, Walter D. Edmonds' masterpiece, is not only the best historical novel about upstate New York since James Fenimore Cooper, it was also number one on the bestseller list for two years, only yielding to the epic Gone with the Wind. This is the story of the forgotten pioneers of the Mohawk Valley during the Revolutionary War. Here Gilbert Martin and his young wife struggled and lived and hoped.

The Winds of War

Herman Wouk's sweeping epic of World War II stands as the crowning achievement of one of America's most celebrated storytellers. Like no other books about the war, Wouk's spellbinding narrative captures the tide of global events - and all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of World War II - as it immerses us in the lives of a single American family drawn into the very center of the war's maelstrom.

A Dangerous Fortune

In 1866 tragedy strikes at the exclusive Windfield School when a mysterious accident takes the life of a student. Among the student's circle of friends are Hugh Pilaster; Hugh's older cousin Edward, dissolute heir to the Pilaster banking fortune; and Micky Miranda, the handsome son of a brutal South American oligarchy. The death and its aftermath begin the spiraling circle of treachery that will span three decades and entwine many lives.

Lionheart

From New York Times best-selling novelist Sharon Kay Penman comes the stunning story of a great medieval warrior-king, the accomplished and controversial son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine: Richard the Lionheart. A powerful tale of intrigue, war, and diplomacy, Lionheart plays out against the roiling conflicts of love and loyalty, passion and treachery, all set against the rich textures of the Holy Land.

Chesapeake: A Novel

The central scene of Michener's historical novel is that section of Maryland's Eastern shore, hardly more than 10 miles square. To this point come the founders of families that will dominate the story.

Space: A Novel

James A. Michener tackles the most ambitious subject of his career: space, the last great frontier. This astounding novel brings to life the dreams and daring of countless men and women - people like Stanley Mott, the engineer whose irrepressible drive for knowledge places him at the center of the American exploration effort, and Norman Grant, the war hero and US senator who takes his personal battle not only to a nation but to the heavens.

Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel

Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He's a normal Italian teenager - obsessed with music, food, and girls - but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior. In an attempt to protect him, Pino's parents force him to enlist as a German soldier - a move they think will keep him out of combat.

The Fires of Spring: A Novel

David Harper is an orphan, seemingly doomed to loneliness and poverty. As an adolescent con artist and petty thief, David spends his days grifting at an amusement park, the place where he first learns about women and the mysteries of love. Soon he discovers that his longing to embrace the world is stronger than the harsh realities that constrain him. Featuring autobiographical touches from Michener's own life story, The Fires of Spring is more than a novel: it's a rich slice of American life, brimming with wisdom, longing, and compassion.

Fall of Giants

A huge novel that follows five families through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for votes for women. It is 1911. The Coronation Day of King George V. The Williams, a Welsh coal-mining family, is linked by romance and enmity to the Fitzherberts, aristocratic coal-mine owners. Lady Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London.

Matriarch: Queen Mary and the House of Windsor

The life of Princess May of Teck is one of the great Cinderella stories in history. From a family of impoverished nobility, she was chosen by Queen Victoria as the bride for her eldest grandson, the scandalous Duke of Clarence, heir to the throne, who died mysteriously before their marriage. Despite this setback, she became queen, mother of two kings, grandmother of the current queen, and a lasting symbol of the majesty of the British throne.

Barkskins: A Novel

In the late 18th century, Rene Sel, an illiterate woodsman, makes his way from Northern France to New France to seek a living. Bound to a feudal lord, a seigneur, for three years in exchange for land, he suffers extraordinary hardship, always in awe of the forest he is charged with cleaning. Rene marries an Indian healer with children already, and they have more, mixing the blood of two cultures. Proulx tells the stories of the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of two lineages, the Sels and the Duquets.

Amy Snow: A Novel

It is 1831 when eight-year-old Aurelia Vennaway finds a naked baby girl abandoned in the snow on the grounds of her aristocratic family's magnificent mansion. Her parents are horrified that she has brought a bastard foundling into the house, but Aurelia convinces them to keep the baby, whom she names Amy Snow. Amy is brought up as a second-class citizen, but she and Aurelia are as close as sisters. When Aurelia dies at the age of 23, she leaves Amy 10 pounds. But Aurelia also left her much more.

Publisher's Summary

The best-selling master of historical fiction weaves a grand, sweeping drama of New York from the city's founding to the present day.

Rutherfurd celebrates America's greatest city in a rich, engrossing saga that showcases his extraordinary ability to combine impeccable historical research and storytelling flair. As in his earlier, best-selling novels, he illuminates cultural, social, and political upheavals through the lives of a remarkably diverse set of families.

As he recounts the intertwining fates of characters rich and poor, black and white, native born and immigrant, Rutherfurd brings to life the momentous events that shaped New York and America: the Revolutionary War, the emergence of the city as a great trading and financial center, the excesses of the Gilded Age, the explosion of immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the trials of World War II, the near-demise of New York in the 1970s and its roaring rebirth in the '90s, and the attacks on the World Trade Center. Sprinkled throughout are captivating cameo appearances by historical figures ranging from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to Babe Ruth.

New York is the book that millions of Rutherfurd's American fans have been waiting for. A brilliant mix of romance, war, family drama, and personal triumphs, it gloriously captures the search for freedom and prosperity at the heart of our nation's history.

This is one of the best audio books ever!!! I have listened to hundreds of books and this one was absolutely one of the very best. The way the author incorporates his characters into the history of Manhattan is genius. They are all fascinating and believable characters. I listened to this audiobook twice. Mark Bramhall's narration was superb. You will love this book. I listened to it twice.

I've read every Edward Rutherfurd book, starting with "Sarum" (still my favorite) twenty years ago. I always enjoy the journey through time and the interconnectivity of lives and families. I love historical fiction and seeing great figures and events from a character's firsthand perspective. The narrator is fantastic, seamlessly switching from character to character and giving distinct voices and convincing accents to the characters. [Akin to Michael Lee, in my opinion.] I did have three minor disappointments with the story, though, compared to his other books.

First, in earlier works, such as "Sarum" or "Russka", we follow the interactions of families over thousands of years. The timeframe in "New York" -- about four centuries -- is the shortest of all his works. Yet the vast majority of the story focuses on one privileged English family. The other families (Indian, Dutch, German, Irish, Italian, Jewish, etc.) give color and heart to the story, bringing the rich history and diversity of the city alive. But they often seem secondary to the narrative, and once introduced they disappear at times for long periods with no explanation of what has happened in between. That works better in a story that spans a few thousand years, but in a story that spans a mere 400 we know the character we cared about in the previous chapter is still alive and they are often never heard from again.

Second, I wish the story had started earlier. Though homage is paid to the Native American inhabitants in Rutherfurd's well-researched style, I would have enjoyed a chapter or two discribing life on Manhattan prior to European arrival. Instead, we begin with the Dutch settlers with depictions of the remaining and displaced natives. I would have liked to have learned more about life before the Europeans came.

Third, everyone seems basically good. There are few "bad" people, but not many. There is no family that spawns generations of thieves and rogues. There are no multi-generational grudges. The criminals are still good at heart. The rich are generally generous and open-minded. Even those we at first dislike often find a redemption and change of heart. And that isn't the way life always works.

These three points are criticisms, but not condemnations. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it. As always, the author weaves a tapestry of the history of a locale with his characters bearing witness as it evolves. And if you haven't read (listened to) Rutherford's earlier works, do so. His journeys are enlightening in their passage through time.

How does Edward Rutherfurd do it? I can barely write a check to pay my mortgage while this author regales us again with his incredible story-telling. I'd read "London" and "Sarum" years ago, before audiobooks and just recently listened to "Princes of Ireland" and "The Rebels of Ireland" - unabridged. Just when I thought Rutherfurd had run out of typewriter ink, here comes this magnificent account of the greatest city in the world. He effortlessly weaves the stories of people who made up what would become "the melting pot" of this country, black, white, poor, rich, young, and old. If you slept through history class, this is the book which will get you caught up in an informative and entertaining way.

At first I was afraid to choose such a long book, but I never regretted my selection. Having lived in New York City for several years definitely helped make the settings of the stories more familiar. Regardless, this book tells the story of the United States through the eyes of the people of New York. Although it includes several different stories that happen years apart, they are all linked very nicely through generational ties and key details or objects that are passed down through the generations. They flow very well together. The main character in the final story is a descendant of the main character mentioned at the beginning of the book. I highly recommend it!

Edward Rutherfurd has created an exciting and interesting story based on historical facts about a city I love: New York. I enjoyed reading this novel and, even though it is rather long, I did not want it to end. The characters were creative and realistic. I had never listened to this narrator before but am looking forward to hearing more works by Mark Bramhall.

I have been a fan of Edward Rutherfurd's work for a long time and was excited to hear about a novel set in America and more specifically, set in New York. Rutherfurd does an amazing job as both a storyteller and historian. As a New Yorker, this novel embodied the spirit and determination of the different families and vast experiences of the American "melting pot." The choice to represent so many cultures and their respective experiences gave a wonderful perspective. The narrator did a very good job as well. My only complaint was his pronunciation of "the Reverend George Whitefield" which in actuality was pronounced as "Whit-field" not "White-field." This book would be a great choice to be incorporated into a high school Social Studies curriculum as well. Highly recommend this book.

I read the book when it first came out and loved it. Listening to it was superior. I have listened to all of Rutherfurd's books more than once, and plan to listen to them again.

What other book might you compare New York to and why?

Rutherfurd's works are well researched and the research documented. While "Sarum" and "The Forrest, are my favorite Rutherford books, "New York" runs close behind.

Any additional comments?

Rutherfurd is one of my all time favorite writers. I'll purchase anything he writes. Any of his works is well worth the Credit. The Narrator is a master! He has a wonderful voice that makes the book's character's come alive.

This was my first novel by this author, and now I can't wait to read the rest! I love history,and I could picture every era of the history of New York as I listened. I enjoyed the format told through the experiences of several families. The narrator was excellent as well.